


Stark Contrasts (OR: Once Upon A Time On Discord)

by ElphieRix



Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: A Plethora Of Universes, A Rare Happy Ending, A Real Bitch Of An Ending On This One, Angst, Barely Edited From My Original Discord Rambling, Dark!Steve, Dark!Tony, Discussion of Abortion, Drowning, Every Pairing Is A Separate Story, Evil Stony Is The Only Stony I Like, Except They're Bigger Jerks Than In The Original Myth, F/M, Good Luck Working Out Which Tags Are For Which Story, Good People Don't Get To Be Happy, Hades and Persephone AU, He's A Dick In Every Universe Kids, Howard Stark's A+ Parenting, If Anyone Is Transphobic In The Comments I'll Delete Their AO3 Account And Eat Their Cat, Kidnapping, Listen They're Based Off Folk Songs Myths And Fairytales And No One Does Tragedy Like Those Guys, M/M, Not Beta Read, Pregnancy, Pregnant Trans Male Character, Tags Updated As I Add Each New Part, The Hazards of Love AU, The Only Fic I Will Ever Write Where Tony And Val Aren't Friends, Tony Stark-centric, Trans Male Character, Trans Tony Stark, Unhappy Ending, Why Does Nearly Every Child Ballad Have Pregnancy As A Plot Point?, You Have Been Warned, Yup Another Concept Album AU It's Who I AM, i have my reasons, orpheus and eurydice au, sorry about that, tam lin au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-02
Updated: 2018-08-13
Packaged: 2019-06-20 14:53:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,421
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15536673
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElphieRix/pseuds/ElphieRix
Summary: Sometimes on discord I retell stories, these are the results. Basically a ton of AUs featuring Tony Stark in various myths, legends and folk tales, with various pairings.





	1. The Hazards Of Love

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> These are only ever gonna be really rough but I figure I'd share cause my discord pals seemed to enjoy them! Please bear in mind I write all of these in one sitting with no editing or research, so be kind.

so, hands up who’s heard of either the hazards of love or clyde waters?

no one?

that’s okay because i’m gonna tell you

the hazards of love is a concept album based on a folk song

and clyde waters is the folk song

the story goes like this

a baby is abandoned in the forest and is found by the queen of the faeries

we’ll switch this up so it’s baby tony being found by howard

 

the baby is almost dead so howard performs a spell to save his life

 

now the baby will be a human by night and take the form of a fawn by day

it also means that howard will have control over the child whenever it’s a fawn

things are going pretty well for howard for about 20 years

until a young woman who has been raised in the local nunnery gets lost in the forest one day

as it gets close to nightfall she comes across a fawn, trapped and tangled in the underbrush

she’s kind and good and so she stops to untangle the poor creature

and she finishes just as the sun sets

the forest is dark and the moon has not yet risen

and the young woman is scared but not stupid

she has her horse, she just needs to find shelter for the night

as the very last of the light fades the fawn shudders under her fingertips

and twists and transforms into a young man

a completely naked young man with dark hair and eyes like autumn

“hello” he says, as if he weren’t completely naked and completely beautiful

“hello,” she says back, as if she weren’t completely awestruck and completely smitten

he stands up and she looks anywhere but _there_

“i’m tony” he says and holds out a hand to help her to her feet

“virginia” she replies

his nose wrinkles “you don’t look like a virginia” he says

that’s the first time he makes her laugh

“you’re lost” he says

“yes”

“i can’t help you leave” he says and frowns slightly “it’s against the rules. but i have a house he doesn’t know about, you can sleep there”

“okay” says virginia, even though it’s foolish

he takes her back to his house and it’s small and secret and filled with little mechanical contraptions

she loves it immediately

he tries to give her his bed

but when he turns to leave the room she catches his hand with her own and pulls him back onto the covers

that night he gives her a nickname

he kisses her freckles and tells her they pepper her skin like stars pepper the sky

she hits him and tells him to stop being sappy and after that he only calls her pepper

the morning comes as all mornings do

and just before daybreak they stand outside the house and share one last kiss

then his limbs twist and transform and he’s a fawn again

and she mounts her horse and rides back to the nunnery

months pass

pepper doesn’t think about him

except she does, every day

and when something stirs in her belly and she realises her moon blood has stopped she thinks about him all the more

and then the nuns find out

and it’s awful and they’re angry and pepper is angry and they scream at her and she screams at them and she never wanted to be an nun anyway and there’s been a bag packed under her bed for the past two years, ever since she turned 18

so she takes her horse and rides back to the forest

she rides back to him

tony wasn’t expecting to ever see her again

he wanted to, but really who would ever want him for more than one night?

he’s not even human half of the time

but then she comes back

she comes back with a baby in her belly and eyes the colour of the sky in the daytime, which he never gets to see as a human

howard would not allow it

howard would hate her

tony is still a child in his eyes

and a child cannot have a love

a child cannot have a child

so pepper hides in tony’s house and he enlists his best friend rhodey to help keep her secret

and for some months it works

until one of the other denizens of the forest notices her

the baby has been born and pepper has taken her to be washed in a little stream by the house

rhodey is a spirit of the trees and plays lookout over the treetops

 

but he is watching for howard, not the rake

the rake was once human, he once had a name

but that was long ago

now he has traded away too many parts of his soul to ever be considered a man

and pepper’s humanity is bright and alluring to him

it isn’t hard for him to reach out and take her

so he does

and he has no interest in keeping her secret and safe

he parades through the forest with his prize

and of course howard finds him

howard has suspected for some time that something is amiss with his son

and when he learns he has found a true love he is livid

tony is part of his court, he is his property

his very life is bound to howard

_how dare he_

so howard is quite happy for the rake to take pepper

especially when she spits in his face and tells him tony never belonged to him

for that, howard commands the great dark river that bisects the forest to part

the river that no one can pass without great magic

and the rake escapes with pepper to the other side

leaving tony on the other

when night falls and tony returns to his home rhodey is there with the baby

and he tells tony what happened during the day, when he was stuck in the form of a fawn

tony leaves to find her immediately

 

but eventually her trail leads to the river

the great dark river that no one can pass without great magic

in desperation he calls to the spirit of the river

and makes a bargain

_”if you calm and let me pass, you may render me a wreck when i come back, so calm your waves and slow the churn, and you may have my precious bones on my return”_

the spirit of the river agrees

for tony is surely a prize worth having

and the waters part

now the rake is an evil creature

and before that he was a very evil man

a man who felt trapped by his early marriage

by his children and his lovely wife and his boring existence

and when his wife died giving birth to his fifth child

it didn’t take long for the rest of his children to have accidents

but ghosts have long memories

and the rake’s was not nearly as long

so he had forgotten why it had been so many years since he had ventured to this side of the river

and so when tony crosses the river

there are the small ghosts of several children waiting for him

because the rake took tony’s love and their lives

they catch up with the rake as he’s sleeping in a cave in a quarry

and tony unties pepper and they flee

they don’t look back as the ghosts surround the rake

 

they don’t look back as he wakes and starts to scream

they don’t look back when the screams are suddenly cut short

the sunrise is not far away and they don’t have long

and tony has a bargain to keep

they make their way down to the river and the waters part

tony begs pepper to walk through on her own

to cross to the other side and return to their child

but she tells him the baby will be safe with rhodey

and refuses to leave him

so they walk out onto the empty riverbed together

and he pulls her close and kisses her

and the waters crash down

and though they drown they never let go of each other

and their bones lay tangled together at the bottom of the river for the rest of time

and their ghosts wander the water hand in hand

howard hears of this

he hears the river gloating of its prize

and a great and terrible rage gathers where his heart should be

and he burns his way through the forest until he finds a small and secret house

and a brave tree spirit still waiting for his friend

a brave tree spirit who is no match for the king of the forest

and howard claims tony’s child for his own

and all is as it was

 

and all is as it will be

and the cycle goes on again

as inevitable as the seasons


	2. Hades And Persephone

so the underworld is spilt into parts

 

 

you have the fields of asphodel which is where most people go and it’s just this vast plain where the souls of practically everyone who’s ever lived just... wander

 

then you have elysium

 

you basically only get in there if you’re related to a god. that’s it. (later on it’s expanded to people who were really really good but in all the myths it’s just the relatives of gods, which also includes being married to a demigod as well) elysium is basically heaven

 

then you have Tartarus

 

where the sinners go

 

like tantalus, who decided when he hosted the gods for a dinner party that the only thing he could feed them was the most precious thing on earth

 

his own son

 

the gods find out and are horrified and restore his son to life (he goes on to help found the Olympic Games)

  

and tantalus is condemned to stand in a pool of water with a fruit tree growing above it

 

and the fruit will always dangle just out of reach and the water will always run through his fingers

 

and he will be hungry and thirsty and never able to satisfy himself for the rest of eternity

 

Tartarus is pretty hardcore

 

so hades!tony oversees this kingdom

 

(there’s also some rivers but we don’t need to go into those i don’t think and of course you don’t get into the underworld at all if you’re not buried properly)

 

anyway we have hades!tony

 

thinking up harsher and harsher punishments in his loneliness and apathy

 

he has a DUTY but it weighs on him

 

his judgements get crueler and crueler and more people are being condemned to Tartarus than ever before, people who arguably don’t deserve it

 

then one day tony is visiting the earth

 

and he spies steve

 

steve SHOULD look innocent, he’s picking flowers for fucks sake, but there’s something cruel glinting in the corner of his eye

  

it makes tony _want_ him

 

but tony is dutiful

 

he goes to the king of the gods (who the hell I would cast as zeus i have no idea) and asks for Steve’s hand

 

zeus says yes

 

but steve’s guardian (bucky??? idk) says no

 

“i’m not protecting him from you, i’m protecting you from him” they say

 

steve is there when tony meets his guardian, standing silently behind them, staring challengingly at tony

 

tony leaves livid and decidedly hot and bothered

 

he decides that he’s been denied what he wants for too long

 

he reaches out and _takes_

 

the earth spilts open under steve and he is fallingfallingfalling

 

he lands at Tony’s feet and tony doesn’t bother to soften the blow of the fall or try and catch him so he is bruised and bloody

 

steve _likes_ that

 

their courtship is quick and passionate and violent

 

and around the underworld people whisper

 

_perhaps this will make the king kind again_

 

but it doesn’t

 

it just makes tony less interested in running the underworld properly and the list of souls still waiting to be judged gets longer and longer

  

now zeus could ignore the kidnap

 

but now hades!tony is neglecting his duty

 

something must be done

 

i’ve decided that Steve’s guardian is bucky

 

all this time steve has been torturing tony by refusing to eat. if you eat something in the underworld you are bound to stay there. steve likes to taunt tony with the continued possibility of his freedom

 

so zeus sends bucky down to the underworld to retrieve steve

 

bucky goes to the palace in disguise and watches as tony passes judgement

 

today is a good day as tony is actually doing his job

 

there’s a woman up for judgement

 

the only bad thing she has done in her life is steal an apple for her sick and starving child

  

the child died anyway and she went back and paid the shopkeeper once she had money

 

tony looks bored, he waves a hand

 

“asphodel” he says carelessly

 

steve is standing at the side of Tony’s throne

 

bucky watches as he bends down and whispers something in Tony’s ear

 

tony’s eyes glisten

 

one corner of his mouth quirks up briefly

 

“wait” he says

 

tony gestures to his guards

 

“Tartarus” he says

 

he leans forward in his seat and makes eye contact with the terrified woman

 

“she will gorge herself on fruit. she will be unable to stop herself. she will eat forever and never feel satisfied”

 

steve lays a hand on tony’s shoulder and tony’s eyes shine with a further idea

 

“find the child. the child will sit in front of her as she stuffs herself, hungry and begging for food. but she will never feed the child. she will know that if she wanted to help enough she could break the punishment, but she will never be strong enough. she will watch her child cry from hunger and continue to try and fail to fill her own stomach”

 

bucky cannot allow this

 

he _cannot_ allow this

 

it is worse than he ever suspected

 

steve has not made tony miserable, he has made tony happy

 

and in their happiness they have made each other _worse_

 

so bucky steps forward and demands steve returns with him

 

bucky is the only one who can protect the world from the worst of steve

 

but steve just grins and walks over to a servant with a plate of refreshments

 

he picks up half a pomegranate

 

steve makes brief eye contact with tony then, still grinning, he stares bucky right in the face and takes a big bite from the the pomegranate, and swallows

 

dark purplish juice runs down steve’s chin

 

tony wants to taste it

 

bucky wants to be sick

 

steve keeps grinning as he eats the whole half of the pomegranate

 

bucky practically flees back to zeus

 

he explains the situation and zeus is for the first time a little concerned

 

he hadn’t expected this to be an actual problem

 

so he says that if steve only ate half a pomegranate he should only stay in the underworld for half a year

 

and the other half bucky will protect the world from him (he’s the destroyer after all)

 

so that’s what happens

 

for half a year there is winter and punishments in the underworld become incredibly cruel

 

_don’t die in winter_ becomes a superstition among mortals

 

and the other half of the year the sun shines and the king of the underworld is kinder and more apathetic. he is lonely

 

steve likes to rub his departures in Tony’s face

 

but he misses tony when he’s gone too

 

over the years the underworld becomes a much nastier place

 

because steve and tony make each other happy

 

and they make each other worse

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I finally found a version of stony that isn't actually triggering to me. Yeah when they're evil it somehow doesn't remind me of my trauma and I actually kinda dig them. Brains are fuckin weird kids.
> 
> Whenever I write dark!Tony he'll be modeled off Superior Iron Man because I really really dig that series, but Steve is just nebulously evil because I have no interest or intention in ever reading Captain Hydra stuff. Every evil action Superior Iron Man does just re-enforces how good Tony is, because SIM is Tony inverted, but Captain Hydra is just making Steve a nazi for the lulz. I have my issues with Steve Rogers but he's not a goddamn nazi, fuck that shit.
> 
> There's a second part to this but I'll post it separately cause it's a different myth.
> 
> And as always: this is basically just a writing exercise I'm sharing cause my friends enjoyed it, it's never gonna be super sophisticated or even particularly good. It's just for fun. :)


	3. Orpheus And Eurydice

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Part two of the Hades and Persephone AU.

valkyrie is orpheus, child of a muse, beloved of the gods, gifted with incredible powers of song

 

and loki is her true love

 

it’s their wedding day and they’re so so so happy

 

until

loki gets bitten by a snake (the goddamn irony lol)

and he dies in valkyrie’s arms

valkyrie is Not Having This

it was their _wedding day_

she’s going to get her lover back

“you can’t” everyone says “it’s winter, even heracles didn’t visit the underworld in the winter. the underworld is so much more dangerous in the winter”

valkyrie doesn’t care

she’s going to get her lover back

she travels to the entrance of the underworld and buys her entry with a song

 

she makes the ferryman cry with her music and he rows her across the river styx

 

“it will be nice having you around” says the ferryman

“we’re not staying” says valkyrie

“the queen is in court” says the ferryman “it will be nice to have you around”

valkyrie suppresses her fear and walks through the lost souls of asphodel. she shudders involuntarily whenever one of them touches her

their hands are cold and their voices hoarse

they all whisper the same thing

_turn back. turn back_

valkyrie arrives at the gates of the palace and pulls out her lyre

she starts playing

she starts singing

she pours all her loss and heartbreak into this one song

this one plea

she plays for hours

she plays for days

she plays until her fingers are bleeding and her throat is raw

it is when she feels like she can finally play no more the gates of the place swing open

there is a man there with flowers in his golden hair

he looks like the sun and gives her a kind smile

“you must be valkyrie” he says

he leads her to the throne room

_maybe the queen isn’t so bad_ thinks valkyrie, hopes valkyrie

then they enter the throne room

loki is there, bound and tied and on his knees

he’s been beaten horribly

the king lounges lazily on his throne

he looks at valkyrie without interest

“play it again” says the queen. his smile isn’t kind anymore

valkyrie looks at loki. his eyes are burning with rage and that means that he’s going to be okay. he’s hurt but he’s still angry so he’ll be okay

valkyrie’s hands bleed and her throat hurts but she’s come this far she won’t stop now

she plays a new song, a song filled with rage at how they have treated her loki, a song filled with her desperation to get him back

by the time she finishes the king is definitely interested

his eyes glitter dangerously

valkyrie is suddenly very very scared

the queen leans over and whispers something in the king’s ear

a corner of the kings mouth twitches up briefly

“you may leave with him” he says “on these conditions”

“you will follow this path back to the land of the living”

a long narrow footpath unfurls behind her and valkyrie turns to look 

 

it stretches up and up and up and up and up and she can’t see it’s end

“he will follow you, but you must not talk. you much not touch. you must not look behind you”

“if you do both of your souls will remain here. he will be consigned to tartarus, and you will play your music”

it’s a better chance than valkyrie hoped for

she accepts

the king gestures to the pathway and valkyrie shares one last look with loki before turning around and setting off

she doesn’t hear loki following her but he surely is

she doesn’t hear them releasing him from his bonds but they surely have

 

he's there

he has to be there

the walk back to the surface feels like it takes longer than valkyrie’s entire life

by the end, when she finally sees sunlight, she is convinced loki is not behind her

but she won’t give up

not now

and then she’s there

finally she’s there

she can feel the warmth of the sun on her face and there is green grass underneath her feet and she turns around, heart pounding

to see loki frozen just before the exit

the queen is holding him back, stopping him from leaving

valkyrie lunges for him but bars slam down between them

the queen laughs

“when did we ever say we’d play fair?” he asks

then he looks at her and how could she ever think his smile was kind?

“you’re free to go” he says “although...”

he tilts his head to one side and with the sun shining on his hair and reflecting in his eyes he is horrifyingly beautiful

“i could let you back in. you could suffer together”

valkyrie nods vigorously

“yes” she says “please please please please please”

“i won’t though”

the queen turns away and valkyrie reaches towards the bars for one last touch from loki

 

he is pulled away before their fingers can even brush each other

valkyrie watches numbly as loki is dragged away

she saw his eyes, they’re not angry anymore and through all of this that’s the scariest thing she has seen

the queen stops suddenly and turns back to valkyrie and something like hope flutters in her chest

it is crushed when she sees his smile

“your mother is a muse, yes?”

valkyrie is too despairing to be confused. she nods uncomprehendingly

the smile grows wider

“and you were married?”

valkyrie nods again

“to think” says the queen “if you had not come he would have been bound for elysium”

valkyrie screams

she screams and fights the bars locking her out

she screams until long past the figures of loki and the queen have disappeared into the darkness

she screams so loud and so long she ruins her gods-given voice forever

she breaks her lyre

vows never to play again

she keeps her vow for years

she never plays, not even at the end when it would save her life

and she is torn to pieces by wild women who worship the god of madness

but then she is dead

and in the underworld her voice in restored

and the king hands her a lyre identical to the one she broke all those years ago

“play” he says

and she has no choice

she never sees loki again

 

but sometimes she can hear his screams

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've actually got quite a bit of other stuff surrounding dark!stony as gods but none of it is an actual coherent story, just my mate and I bouncing ideas off each other. That said, if you wanna see it let me know.


	4. Tam Lin

once there was a great king in a great kingdom

 

and when his son reached his twenty first year he gifted him a castle at the edge of their kingdom

  

stark hall it was called

 

and it had not been inhabited by human souls in many a year

  

the lands surrounding it were wild and rumoured to be filled with tricksy fae

 

the king’s son, tony, loved it all immediately

 

he was a clever man, interested in all manner of science and magics

 

and one day he was wandering among the wild roses, known as poison roses for their more dangerous properties

  

tony carefully picked a few to take back to his workshop

 

but as he turned to leave a stranger appeared before him

 

his skin was dark and his eyes shimmered with the multicoloured light of the fae

 

“these are my lands mortal. those are my flowers”

 

tony was wary, but it was a fae magic that allowed him to trade his breasts for a beard so he was not afeared of them as others might be

  

and these are _his_ lands

 

“i come and go as i please” said tony “you have no claim on stark hall. these are my lands fae. these are my flowers”

  

the fae laughed delightedly

 

“my name is rhodey” he said

 

tony did not give him his name in return

  

but they talked some more and that night tony lay awake thinking of rhodey’s smile

 

and the next day he went down and plucked another wild rose

 

and rhodey appeared again

 

in the end, it was almost inevitable that they would fall together in a tangle of love and limbs

 

and tony knew better than to give his name to a fae, so he definitely knew better than to give rhodey his heart

  

but he wanted to

 

the time came when tony was called back to his father’s court

 

and he resolved to forget all about rhodey

 

but rhodey would not be forgotten

 

soon a life began to stir in tony’s belly

 

and it was everything tony wanted and everything he never did

 

he would have wed rhodey and born his child and loved him for the rest of their days

 

but fae will not be wedded

 

so tony returned to stark hall

  

and to the wild roses

 

to his books of science which detailed how to distill the poison roses into a tincture that would still the quickening in his belly

  

tony tore the roses from the ground with bare hands

 

their thorns tore his skin and tears stung his eyes

 

and when he turned to leave

 

rhodey was there

 

“those are my flowers mortal. that is my child”

  

a rage uncoiled in tony’s gut

 

“this is my decision” he spat

 

rhodey took a step towards him, his multicoloured eyes glistening

 

“why harm our child tony?”

 

“fuck you” said tony, not even blinking when rhodey used the name he’d never told him

  

“fuck you for leaving me alone in this”

 

“fuck you, you know i don’t have a choice”

 

“fuck you for not being a nice human gentleman i could take home to my father and marry and raise our baby with”

 

“fuck you rhodey”

 

rhodey went very still

 

and then took another step toward tony and grasped both his hands

 

“you’d want me if i were human?” he asked

 

“i already want you” whispered tony “but fae won’t be wedded”

 

“hold me” said rhodey “hold me and don’t let go for anything. hold me and fear me not and i’ll be your love forever”

  

tony opened his arms

 

at first it felt just like hugging rhodey normally did

 

then something shifted

 

and tony kept his arms wrapped tight even though he was clutching a lion to his chest

  

and tony kept his arms wrapped tight even though he was clutching a wolf to his chest

 

and tony kept his arms wrapped tight even though he was clutching a snake to his chest

 

and tony kept his arms wrapped tight even when it was a naked burning flame he held close to him

 

and tony kept his arms wrapped tight even when the figure in his arms was warm and naked and human

 

and rhodey blinked at him with soft, brown, _human_ eyes

 

“you freed me” he said quietly “you can let go of me now tony”

 

tony looked at his rhodey

 

“never” he said


End file.
